Friday, February 22, 2008

Tour of California Lanterne Rouge

The guy who sticks it out to the end despite being last in the standings always gets a great deal of credit here. Yesterday's brutally cold, wet, long (and virus-infected) stage of the Tour of California is a particular case in point. No big climbs, and yet it was nasty enough out there that 15 riders (12 percent of the field) dropped out during the stage. ("Où sommes-nous? La Californie?")

He didn't ride first today, apparently because they're arranged by teams, but the poor guy had the bad luck to flat on the Solvang time trial course and came in with a time of 39:14, so he may keep his Lanterne Rouge position at least another day.